


Irishman in New York

by Limes_Parton



Series: Graves and Bones [1]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Credence Barebone Deserves Better, Credence Barebone Gets a Hug, Credence Barebone Learning Magic, Credence Barebone Needs a Hug, Falling In Love, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Murder, Original Percival Graves is a Softie, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Protective Original Percival Graves, Romance, Shyness, Smitten Original Percival Graves, Trauma, War, the author is bad at tagging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:34:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28302420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Limes_Parton/pseuds/Limes_Parton
Summary: Percival escapes Grindelwald but he is very much not himself.Taking care of a certain young man might be just what's needed to bring him back on track.From the 25th of December in the year of our lord 2020 till the 25th of december 2021, you can solve some puzzles in this fic and win a prize!
Relationships: Credence Barebone/Original Percival Graves
Series: Graves and Bones [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2190882
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	Irishman in New York

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Christmas gift for a very special person: my bestest best friend. Merry Christmas, you firecracker. May we see each other in another year, happy, healthy and full of love, life and energy. 
> 
> To make this more entertaining, I’ve hidden some easter eggs in this story. The first one is found very early on and is a coded message. ( Hint: It’s encoded using two different methods, you’ll have to use both to get it de-coded.) If you manage to find and decode an easter egg, post your answer in the comments. If you are correct, I’ll write a 5k fanfic for you. You may write down a pairing ( preferable in one of the fandoms I already posted in, but you may choose another, I’ll adapt) and three bullet points of what you want plot-wise with your answer. If you manage to interpret the result correctly, you get two bullet points as bonus. If not, I’ll give an explanation in the comments, so your curiosity will be satiated one way or another 😉
> 
> The titel is a reference to the great song "Englishman in New York" by Sting.
> 
> Edit 12/29/2020  
> READ THE COMMENTS!

Percival knew that his situation was pretty bad. Considering that his hands where tied and he was hanging from the ceiling of his own basement via rune encrusted shackles.

But his aurors needed him. Grindelwald was good, but even he couldn`t prevent Percival gathering information about him and his plans. In the darkest corner of his mind, behind his childhood memories, was a vault with hundreds of lockboxes. And in lockbox 6 12 1 11 20, his most secured one, he stored every bit of information he could squirrel away. The code for this particular lockbox, 18 5 9 5 3 19 5 1 19 1 - 5 11 1 20 5, was stored in another lockbox for extra security.

Most of said information was very specific and possibly useless, but who knew? Knowing that Grindelwald had three wands on him at all times might be the key to take him down. Or that he had a pinkie ring with on his right hand, glamoured at all times. Graves found that one when Grindelwald had gut-punched him and it left a nasty bruise. Maybe that his hair was always parted to his right, that he pulled his shoulders back before speaking, something, anything, could be useful.

He just needed to get out of here and get the information into Seraphina’s capable hands before Grindelwald’s plans came to fruition or the information became outdated.

So Percival sends his magic through the runes, slowly but surely dispelling them, eroding them. All the while Grindelwald visits every now and again to pump him for information or to torture him. Or to rip his hair out. Percival hates that he hasn’t thought of implementing secret Polyjuice check-ups in the ministry to prevent exactly what is happening now, but there’s no use crying over spilled milk.

He manages to pick up that whatever Grindelwald is planning is either working and he plans to move soon, or his plans are failing. The magical energy readings he gets are tinged with nervousness. There is a line between the eyes of his Grindelwald-self, which is slight but clearly visible. He is less vicious in his attacks. Only slightly mind you, and it also could be because he is accustomed to Percival’s mind now, or that he got all the useful information he could get out off him, he doesn’t know.

He doesn’t care either. His food rations, sparse to begin with and the only times he isn’t strung up, stopped two days ago. He needs to get free before they forget the water rations as well. This is coming to an end, one way or another.

His magic surges in one, last, desperate attempt to break the bindings and one shackle gives. He is so, so lucky that it breaks pretty much in the middle, where it is connected to the chain, so that he can pull the chain through the metal loop imbedded in the ceiling. And to think that he normally hung his sandbag there for boxing…

Anyhow, he is free, starving and thirsty and there is a guard, wand raised in the doorway. Adrenalin surges through him, he ducks under the spellfire, tackles the guard. They hit the ground, Percivals fall buffered by the warm body under him. He pushes one thumb into each eye, feeling them give before ripping the wand out of the screaming mans hand. He bites down on the wand, to keep it out of reach but still having it close by, turns the sobbing guard around, loops the chain on his shackle around the mans throat, grips the loose end with his free hand. He pulls, till the body below him isn’t shaking, breathing, living anymore.

He manages to get to his living room, the closest room with floo-access in relation to the basement staircase, without interference.

The last thing he sees before he crashes on the thick, dark blue Persian rug in Seraphinas office are the blurry faces of Seraphina and her two office aids, Charles and Aliza.

* * *

The next weeks are a blurr. He gives them all the information he has, before and during receiving medical care. He has so much to do and so little time, he orders the auror medical team that transferred him into hospital to set up a sickbed in his office. He might need help, but he’ll be damned if he won’t manage to get everything in order, at least paperwork wise.

He will fight Grindelwald in every single way he can, and if it is just implementing the mandatory, randomised, very secret employee Polyjuice-test to keep Grindelwald and his minions out. Hell, if toilet paper is what his aurors need to function at a hundred percent to fight the bastard, he will personally test and order that, too. He will do anything, to see this man gone. Anything.

By the time he is in his office, in his sickbed, all of the curse wounds bandaged up with murtlap essence and Merlin knows what, Grindelwald was captured and escaped, and the whole thing didn’t blow the statute of secrecy out of the water because a … Magizoologyst??... had released a thunderbird with a magical potion, robbing everyone off the last three hours of their memory.

As always, his face remains impassive while he receives this update. On the inside, where his mind was normally orderly and calm, is a ruin now, a burned-out shell. Grindelwald ripped everything apart in his quest for information.

He stands in the ruins of his mind, laughing hysterically, while on the outside, he remains calm and collected.

* * *

… but where had the thunderbird even come form?

Percival heard about crazy magical stunts being pulled in history books, he never imagined becoming a part in one of these stories. Least of all the part of the bumbling buffoon who started it all by being the perfect target and letting himself be overwhelmed by a dark wizard.

If he wasn’t single, if he had more contact with friends and relatives, maybe, all of this wouldn’t have happened, because someone might have noticed that something was wrong with the fake Graves. If he had some fixed event, like pub-night, that nobody at work knew about, and missed that bi-weekly check-in, maybe…

Percival gives himself a mental shake-down. He needs to build up his mind back up and fast, if he wants to become a productive member of society again. What had he been thinking about…? Ah, yes, the thunderbird, the magizoologist and the boy-

Something that bothers him a great deal is the boy with the unstable magic. His memories are jumbled but he knows that he had a connection with Credence. His mind refuses to accept that Credence is dead.

Which is why he orders Newt Scamander off a boat headed to Britain at the last minute.

Said magizoologist isn’t at all happy about that. Percival doesn’t care. Instead, he cares about physical therapy, eating healthy and a lot to get back up and running (quite literally) as fast as he can. Because his head still isn’t in order, he needs sounding boards to check if his thought processes are logical and coherent. One of said sounding boards is, of course, Tina. The only auror who was aware enough to notice something wrong and who had enough spine to do something about it. The other sounding board turns out to be a person he didn’t get along with prior to his incarceration; Seraphina. Seraphina comes around every day and they have frank discussions behind lots of spell barriers to make sure no one can overhear them.

The Polyjuice-Checks get implemented after the first talk he has with Seraphina.

That gives Percival the idea of doing more tests. He enlisted Queenie and other legilimentics he trusts enough to question them under veritaserum. Satisfied that those legilimentics won’t double cross him, he and Seraphina decreed, that every wizard in every part of the ministry had to be questioned by their department head, down to cleaning ladies and cafeteria staff. What he didn’t tell them was, that the (glamour charmed to look like another person) secretary ‚steno graphing' all of the conversations was a mind reader, noting down where dishonesty was detected.

Upon announcing the interviews, even without revealing the hidden component, three ministry employees out of his own department as well as some others fled the country over night, leaving distraught wife’s, husbands and children behind.

Tina, finally having a breather, sat down with Newt to find out what kind of security measurements he had on his case. The Niffler turned out to be invaluable in tightening security around the ministry, Percivals and the Goldstein-sisters homes. Under the cover of darkness, auror teams with rune clusters laid down wards every night. First around Manhatten, then the whole of New York.

Percival will have the city be as save as it can be. This is going to be one of the big command centres in the fight against Grindelwald.

Six weeks after he escaped Grindelwald, Tina and Newt visit him at home, taking every precaution there is, and tell him that Credence survived. Percival doesn’t break out in trears, but it’s a close thing. He thanks both of them and invites them for dinner.

He could stand to have a couple more friends.

* * *

Two months after his escape, Tina has arranged for him to meet Credence. He is very nervous about that. Credence knows that it was not Percival who tortured him, but Grindelwald still looked like Percival when he did all of those things. Nobody could blame him if he had a violent reaction towards him. By now he has sorted out all his memories and knows where the two of them stood before Grindelwald intervened.

He just hopes Credence will listen to him and let him explain what happened.

The two met on front of a small coffee vendor in City Hall Park.

„Hello Credence. “, says Percival, holding out his hand for Credence to shake.

The boy looks sideways, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

„Can I get you anything? “, Percival asks, gesturing to the vendor.

He already has a paper coffee cup from said vendor in his hand.

Credence shakes his head again. Percival gestures to a nearby bank, saying: “Let’s sit down for a moment. “

Credence sits down with him, never looking directly at him. Instead, he looks at Percival in a slanted, through-his-lashes kind of way. He actually looks pretty cute, in a vulnerable, shy way.

Percival takes a deep breath.

„Around five months ago, I was ambushed at home. I had been investigating strange reports about an Obscurial endangering a muggle neighbourhood. Do you know what that is?“

Credence knows what an Obscurial is. Perceval explains how Grindelwald overpowered him and kept him prisoner in his own home for nearly half a year. If he is honest with himself it feels a little bit cathartic to tell all of this to another person. Seraphina might be right when she talks to him about getting therapy. But that is neither here nor there because right now he asked to explain what will happen next.

It was already hard, to explain everything, but what must happen now, that’s going to be the hard part.

„What must happen now is, that we need to educate you. Your magic is separated from your being, making it dangerous. Newt has the idea of reintegrating your magic into you, which is why he will stay in New York to teach you. I understand that you are staying with the Goldstein sisters for now, correct? “

Credence nods.

„Good. Well, the good side is that I believe it can be done and I volunteered to be one of your tutors. “

At that, the boys head snaps up. It’s the first time Credence is looking straight at him and Percival is actually a bit disconcerted. That look is intense. If he didn’t know any better, he'd say that Credence was a beginning Legilimentic, pulling every thought and memory out of Percival’s head without finesse or care.

It is a look Percival recognises.

It’s the look of someone who thinks in two categories: live or die. There is no thought for comfort, hardship, even necessities, just survival.

„The downside is, that you can’t get any of the of the support a youth like you would normally be granted. Only a select number of people know that you survived the fight in the underground station. We need to keep it that way till you have your magic under control. The law regarding obscurials is very clear: If they don’t self-destruct, they need to be killed immediately and with extreme prejudice. Also, we suspect Grindelwald might come after you again if he knew you survived. The size of your Obscurus suggests that you are a very powerful wizard, or will be, once you are trained. You would be a considerable boon for him.”

Credence nods once.

His gaze is trained on Percival intently. It's the first time he opens his mouth to say something. What comes out of his mouth makes Percival's blood freeze.

“I need assurances that you are who you say you are. I noticed that you were different when you were not yourself, but I could not pinpoint the difference exactly. Even if I did, there was no one I could turn to for help. So, I need some kind of failsafe to check that you are who you say you are.”

Percival unfreezes and nods. He should have thought of something like this. As a street rat Credence is accustomed to think in terms of survival. So he recounts the first time they met, the first gift Percival gave him, a chocolate bar, and tells him details of himself nobody else knows. He tells him a couple of childhood stories nobody knows anything about, which Credence can use.

“Now you know things about me nobody else knows. If you are in doubt if it is really me, just ask me why Marcia had an allergic reaction. If the answer isn't ‘Crocus’ you will know that it isn't me and you have to go to Tina, Queeny, Newt or Seraphina. I will talk to them to set up a system in case of emergencies. The questions are all I can do for right now.”

Before they part ways, Percival offers him a job at the ministry archives as a low-level clerk. Credence has to change his appearance to work at the ministry, but this way he will have a quiet place to observe and absorb wizarding behaviours and traditions. It also comes with the side benefit off supporting himself and making some money, so he won't be and feel like he is dependent on the Goldstein sisters. Credence tells him, that he will think about it, but his head is turned away eyes staring on his feet.

Percival thanks him for letting him explain and says his goodbyes. He hopes he will meet Credence again very soon.

* * *

And so it happens that Credence gets a new haircut, new clothes, and a permanent dying solution that turns his hair brown. He gets the low-level clerk position at the ministry and starts by filing paperwork for the expense Department. It is half-day position, meaning that he has enough times to study magic and everything coming with it in the afternoons and evenings.

Every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evening, Credence floos over from the Goldstein sisters to Percival's to study Runes and Defence.

Between the Sisters and himself, Credence had one wizard or witch to support him in the core subjects: arithmancy and herbology (Tina) charms and transfiguration (Queeny) and defence and runes (Percival).

They are all good on no-maj-studies at least.

Mr Scamander had left a couple of books and promised to return in one months’ time to help with magical creatures, magical history and most importantly: potions.

Percival had been sceptical at first, that someone without finished schooling like Scamander would try to teach Credence anything.

Credence, not one for talk, didn’t exactly tell him what he and Newt talked about or what he learned from him, but Percival gathered that it was a wide variety of things, because Credence asked politely if he could borrow some books from Percival’s study on their third weekend together.

The books he chose were about law, both in the US and international, wizarding history and art, but most baffling of all, cookbooks. Both magical and the two no-maj ones Percival had received as a gift once.

Some time goes by before Percival realises how close they have all gotten. He never imagined being so close to anyone, like Tina, that he talks to her, even about his practically non-existent private life. He notices that he has a firm circle of friends and associates, when Seraphina asks him how he feels about Credence on one of her visits. Thankfully, it's on one of the evenings where Credence isn't at his place.

He blows her off, but lies awake at night, examining his own feelings for the boy, to figure out what Seraphina noticed to suggest that he felt more for Credence than he should. He doesn’t find anything but a small degree of affection for the orphan who is just discovering magic.

They settled into an easy routine, only disturbed by Seraphina popping in on weekends once a month to evaluate Credence' progress for herself.

Credence is too nervous to speak to her at all the first time, but he shows her his illuminating charm, the hovering charm, a stinging hex and, to Percivals surprise, a dust cleaning charm. Newt apparently taught him that one.

Working magic is still such a wonder for Credence that he shines with awe anytime he says a spell and waves his wand and _something actually happens_ , that Percival wants to wrap up this precious boy and protect him from the world and any Grindelwald’s out there who might hurt him.

He doesn’t notice the smile creeping over his face or Seraphina noticing said smile. But he does notice that she congratulates Credence fondly on his progress and his insides are flooded with warm contentedness. He is proud of his boy and his boy’s accomplishments, his friends acceptance of Credence. He feels more at peace than he has in all the time since he has been appointed head auror and now.

He doesn’t dare to overthink said feelings.

* * *

The calm he has felt shatters, when one of his aurors doubles over, foaming at the mouth, in the middle of the office, showing signs of poisoning. Apparently, someone had managed to sneak into his home, and poison his lunch.

They also find poison in all of his non-perishables, when they investigate the murder attempt. The only saving grace is, that Percival is a paranoid bastard, who has all sorts of things in the first aid kid in his office. Including an Bezoar, which he stuffs down auror Mitchell's throat without hesitation.

Following this episode, the ministry spares no cost, in letting Rune Masters install wards at every ministry personnel's home, to prevent further attempts like Mitchell's. They don’t know if it was a test run in taking out the whole auror force, an attempt to tie up loose ends by one of the defectors, or something personal to do with auror Mitchell. Frankly, they don’t have the time to figure it out because they are in the middle of a fucking WAR.

Percival thinks long and hard before he employed his contacts and asked his mother’s tribe to bless his house. Nobody knows that his mother was a Native American while his father was Irish. Not many people even know that he grew up in Ireland for a significant amount of his childhood. His Irish accent doesn't come out unless he is in the throes of passion, inebriated or very emotional. All states he is rarely in these days.

Perceval has a huge pile of gold, which he puts to good use now. He buys himself a new house, which has a tunnel going to a Speakeasy two blocks away. He will never be a sitting duck in his own home ever again. Still, securing his new house with more obscure magics, might be the only way, to make sure that Grindelwald doesn't get to him a second time. So he contacts the tribe. The native American tribes were fair when it came to cost, but they guarded the tribes magic fiercely.

Everyone leaving the tribe, whether it was for a few days or years or potentially forever, had their knowledge about the tribe’s magic taken from them. They got it back when they returned, but they couldn’t share anything with outsiders, no matter how much they might want to.

They did however retain some vague knowledge about what the magic could do, and Percival remembers the feel of the wards surrounding the preserve his mother resided in after his dad died. He arranges for a free Friday because the ritual might take longer and greets the shaman and his assistant with a low bow, coffee and cookies baked by Queeny.

The shaman takes one long look at him and decides to do a cleansing ritual right then and there, before anything else can happen.

As this ritual takes a couple of hours, he lets the shaman and his assistant prepare everything while he does the ritualistic cleansing bath. The sack of herbs the assistant stuck in his hand already seems to help him relax, and he feels some parts of his brain slipping into their rightful place once again.

The ritual itself is exhausting and painful. It ends with Percival bleeding black goo from his nose and the shaman as well as his apprentice visibly shocked by the amount of dark energy Percival was exposed to.

He offers up his guest rooms for the both of them, while he himself takes another bath and goes to bed.

* * *

The next morning Percival gets up early, feeling refreshed like he has awoken from a long dream and goes out by foot to pick up breakfast at a local bakery. He feels light, nearly giddy, and has to control himself to not grin like a maniac. The last time he felt this elated was on a three week trip to Florida with a friend from the auror academy after finishing training. They got very, very high on said trip. Percival barely remembers it, except for three blissful hours where he was floating through the universe and the awful hangover the next morning. Everything before and in between is just… gone. He takes the most scenic detour through a park to shake of anyone who might be trying to follow him home and hops up the steps to his new house. He wonders when it will feel like home.

He talks to the shaman about his house security over breakfast, when Credence shows up through the floo.

The shaman takes one look at him, turns around to glare at Percival, and tells his apprentice to prepare a second ritual circle.

The whole affair turns embarrassing really fast, because Percival has to show Credence how the cleansing bath works, while Credence is sitting in the herb infused water, completely naked. Percival can't help himself but to notice how pretty Credence looks. The warm water makes his skin flush a delectable rosé. He looks like a Greek marble statue come to life.

He loses himself in a Daydream where Credence is an accolade of Venus, send to tempt Percival into a daring and potentially deadly series of quests for the goddess of love and beauty. He flinches, when Credence’ wet hand touches his own, resting on the bathtub rim. His hand feels like it is going to burst into flames, despite being wet.

He hastily makes his excuses and returns to the shaman in the living room. He asks the shaman if two talismans could be made for him in Credence to protect them from mind invasion and at least lower level harmful spells. The shaman smiles for the first time and orders his apprentice to prepare such talismans while he himself bespells the house.

Afterwards, the shaman removes the memory of how he did it from both Percival and Credence, but the knowledge about what the wards do remains. The talismans do take a longer amount of time and will be send by owl post. Shaman and apprentice accept Percival’s thanks and his bag of gold and gems, bow respectfully when Percival bows and depart without another word.

Percival sends Credence home to the Goldstein sisters shortly afterwards.

He falls asleep nursing a whiskey, sitting in his favourite armchair in front of the fireplace, dreaming of a black-haired youth with full lips, pale skin flushed pink, and of shy disposition. He dreams about kissing him, caressing his face, carding his fingers through his hair.

When he wakes up, in the state between dream and wakefulness, the environment changes. He is in the bathroom again, Credence sitting in the tub, naked, surrounded by fragrant water that makes his head dizzy.

The thing that makes him flush is the mental picture his imagination paints, of him washing Credence’ hair in the bathtub, rinsing it out, rubbing him dry, wrapping him in a big fluffy blanket and falling asleep next to Credence like this, cuddling him.

Which wakes him up fully, hard in his pants and ashamed to his bones.

It's embarrassing, really embarrassing, how much he has fallen for Credence. One look out of his deep dark eyes an Percival might melt like ice cream in the sun. One kind word from Credence already means so much more than any compliment, any declaration of love, anyone else has ever paid him. If Credence would ever ask for anything, Percival would gladly give it to him. He wants to provide anything and everything but especially as safe space for this young man he is so an armoured with. And when has he stopped thinking of Credence as his charge, a boy, probably not old enough to have finished schooling? Percival wants to smack himself. He does not need to add ‘predatory’ to the other unflattering attributes said about him. Is he a paedophile? Why is he even thinking about this?!

It's not just physical attraction, Percival doubts he would be able to fall for someone this much, just because they were physically attractive. Rather it is Credence’ unshakable trust in himself, to adapt and overcome any obstacle, which strangely doesn't result in self-confidence or high self-worth. It is also Credence’ selflessness, his sense of duty, the way he doesn't forget about his sisters even though they can't follow him into the magical world. The way he still looks out for them and has repeatedly asked Percival what he can do to make their lives easier without doing something illegal.

And that brings Percival to the next hundreds of thousands of things he adores about Credence. His sense of right and wrong. The desire to integrate into this society, even if it hasn’t greeted him with open arms. The way he studies, the joy with which he immerses himself fully into a different culture, into a wholly new life. 

The torturous thing about all of this is that he doesn't even know how Credence feels. If he would be interested in pursuing anything with Percival, if possible. He doesn't even know what happened between Credence and Grindelwald. He agonises over the possibility, that Grindelwald may have pursued a sexual relationship with Credence. The thought takes him right over the edge of furious into the cold sea of ever lasting hatred and the resulting murderous intent towards Grindelwald.

He doesn’t dare to ask Credence about the five months in which Credence had contact with Grindelwald, who had worn _his_ face the whole time.

Instead, he shoves all of his emotions and thoughts into his lockbox, hidden behind childhood memories, the only place untouched by Grindelwald.

* * *

It's been nearly a year after the showdown in New York, nearly eight months since both Percival and Grindelwald escaped. The war has sped up and increased significantly. Percival is in near daily contact with Theseus Scamander and his French counterpart Antoinette Exupéry.

He didn’t want to leave his friends, the family he found…and Credence, especially Credence, behind to head out to war. But he knew he had to. He had visited, but a longer stay was needed. He was fully healed now, his head was as secure as he could get it within a year after being ripped down to it’s foundations.

He was one of the most powerful wizards, and he hadn’t become the head of the auror department for nothing. He had become the head of the auror department because he had trained his natural abilities to extraordinary levels. He was an accomplished occlumens, animagus and aura-reader, the last one especially useful to spot lies in other occlumens.

He knew that he was needed, and he felt guilty for avoiding going to war for so long. He couldn't put it off any longer. He informed Seraphina of his decision and Tina of course. He was unsure as to how he would fare. Being an army general and heading the auror department are two very different jobs after all.

What he did know was that he needed to tell Credence. Maybe a walk through Madison Square Park, eating a Sandwich on the steps to the Eternal Light.

He resolved to send Credence an owl when he came home. Credence loved animals in general and talked excitedly about the ones in Newts case. He always let the owls have more treats than he ought to, but anyone seeing Credence delightedly feeding and petting the messengers didn’t have the heart to tell him to stop.

He used the street exit to pick up food at the magical diner at Reade Street and apparated home from there.

A wave and his letterbox opened. Nothing inside. Percival pressed the letterbox close with his whole hand, de-arming the enchantments the shaman had laid down. There were several points all over the house, the letterbox being one of the disarming points. As no one observing him would be able to tell that he had disarmed anything, it would be unlikely that they would be able to tell the difference or dismantle the enchantments.

That’s why Percival, getting the warm confirmation that the enchantments were intact and undisturbed, opened the door and stepped inside.

He nearly drew his wand when he was accosted immediately. Credence had thrown himself at him as he turned around to close the door.

Credence was snivelling into Percival’s robes, mumbling something Percival couldn’t understand.

Percival managed to half carry, half drag, Credence with him to the couch. They were tangled together, Credence hands gripping the lapels of his robes.

Percival cuddled the man in his arms, whispered reassurances that all would be well, that he was here now, that it was okay and would be okay. 

Credence first stopped hyperventilating then crying and finally, he calmed down completely. Percival didn’t stop petting Credence though. He didn’t stop telling Credence that it would be okay.

“Tell me what happened.”

Credence took a couple of deep breaths. “Tina said you need to leave. I don’t want you to.”

Percival sighed. “I am needed. And I want to go. I feel responsible for letting him get away.”

He wanted to take the words back as soon as he said them. He wouldn’t talk this openly to anyone. Anyone except Credence. And Credence looked at him with his wide, open eyes.

“I don’t want you to leave me.”

“I have to.”

“Will you come back to me?”

“Always.”


End file.
